How To Introduce Your Dog To A Snake?

While dogs and snakes can seem like an unlikely pairing, under the right circumstances they can co-exist in one big happy family.

How To Introduce Your Dog To A Snake?

In general, it is better to keep reptiles and mammals separate but if you’re going to introduce them, go slow and don’t leave them alone together.

How Well Do Dogs And Snakes Get Along?

Dogs and snakes would be incredibly unlikely to ever get along in the wild as even though snakes can be quite scary they are actually prey animals to dogs.

This being said since being domesticated and no longer having to worry about feeding themselves, a lot of dogs will find themselves with unlikely allies and friends.

Can A Dog And A Snake Be Friends (BFF)?

While dogs are very affectionate and friendly, snakes are lone wolf’s so to speak and don’t actually have the capacity to feel love or reciprocate affection.

So while your dog may love their newfound buddy it is unfortunately impossible for a snake to feel the same way.

Snakes can become more tolerant and be conditioned to not be afraid of their dog friend anymore, which means that they can have a long-lasting if a bit one-sided friendship.

How To Introduce Your Dog To Your Snake [Step By Step]

Let them get used to the others sent by bringing them into a room where the other had previously been (do not put them together yet).
Put your snake in their enclosure and allow your dog in the room on a leash, so they can see each other but do not allow them to get too close yet.
After completing step 2 and separating them for a while (2-3+ hours) bring the dog back in on the leash and allow the dog to get closer to the cage and back away if the snake looks frightened.
Once you are satisfied that your dog is not interested in harming your snake you can hold the snake while your dog is in the room being careful not to let the snake bite the dog or vice versa.

Please remember to never put a snake on the ground while with the dog and never leave them alone together as they can and will harm each other under the right circumstances.

Do Dogs Get Jealous Of Snakes?

Dogs hold a lot of affection for their owners and thus can get very jealous if they feel that their owner’s affection is on something else but does this apply to snakes?

Why Do Some Dogs And Snake Don’t Get Along At All?

Some dogs and snakes are very intuned with their more primal instincts, this means that they will never be able to be comfortable around one another.

How Can I Safely Determine How My Dog Will React To My New Snake?

You have to know your dog, how they act around other animals, how they act around prey animals, are they frightened easily? All of these factor into how your dog might react.

If your dog is freighted very easily it is possible that they will actually be afraid of the snake or if they are instinctual hunters they might not be able to control that urge.

Whatever the case may be, you can never fully know how an animal will react in any situation so proceed with extreme caution.

Do Dogs Eat Snakes?

While a lot of dogs will never find themselves with the opportunity to eat a snake they absolutely will if it is small enough and they get the chance.

No dog if hungry will pass up on easy meat.

How To Keep My Dog From Eating My Snake?

The easiest and safest way to ensure that your dog can’t eat your snake is to keep your snakes enclosure in a room that your dog does not have access to.

If this is not possible just always ensure that if your dog is in the same room as your snake’s enclosure to monitor them closely.

If you fear that your dog may want to attack your snake, never take them out of their enclosure when your dog is around.

Why Did My Dog Attack My Snake?

If your dog is the type that literally wouldn’t harm a fly usually and yet has attacked your snake, the snake probably made your dog feel threatened.

Dogs are very emotionally intelligent and are actually better at understanding body language than we are.

So if your snake got into a ‘strike pose’ (which they do quite frequently, especially around other animals) your dog was probably trying to attack the snake before it attacked them.

How Can I Train My Dog To Not Attack Snakes?

Training a dog to not attack snakes if they are already prone to it can be very difficult but not impossible.

The best way to ensure a dog will not be aggressive towards snakes is to introduce them to snakes at a very young age and have them grow up with snakes.

While that would be ideal it is not always possible, so here are a couple of ways to train adult dogs not to attack snakes:

Watch videos with them of snakes, if they bark or growl do not pay attention to them and if they sit calmly give them a treat.
Bring them into a room with snakes in enclosures on a leash and allow them to sniff around, if they are good and calm give them a treat and pull them back if they start getting aggressive.

My Dog Ate My Snake What Should I Do?

First things first, take your dog to the vet, snakes are full of very small bones that can injure your dog while being ingested, they could have also bitten your dog during the altercation.

Once you are sure that your dog is okay you can properly assess the situation, what was the cause of the unfortunate incident? Does your dog need better training?

It is also important to wonder how the dog got access to the snake and if future snakes you may have would be destined to the same fate.

Can You Raise A Snake With A Dog?

Dogs and snakes are not exactly to most complimentary animals to each other as dogs are very affectionate and snakes don’t really feel emotions in that way.

That being said, it is absolutely possible for them to co-exist together if the circumstances are right.

Are Snakes Harmful To Dogs?

You would think that you would only have to worry about your dog harming your snake but snakes can be very dangerous to dogs as well.

Snakes depending on the size can have some very ferocious bites that can cause serious injury and some commonly kept snakes are even mildly venomous, like hognose snakes.

What Dog Breeds Are Good With Snakes?

There aren’t any breeds of dogs that would be friendly with snakes in the wild but there are quite a few who have adapted to be friendly towards almost all animals.

Those dog breeds include:

Golden Retriever
Beagle
Corgi
Maltese
Pug

What Dog Breeds Are Not Good With Snakes?

The dog breeds that won’t work well with snakes (or really any other prey animal) are dogs that are specifically bred for hunting.

This is because their hunting instinct is so strong that they probably would not be able to resist trying to kill something like a snake if it were living in their home.

Here are some hunting dog breeds to avoid if you have snakes:

American Pit Bull Terrier
American Foxhound
Bloodhound
Jack Russel Terrier
Weimaraner

Are Snakes Scared Of Dogs?

Even though we as humans see snakes as very scary, they are actually more likely to be scared of us than want to harm us and the same goes for dogs.

Snakes are scared of any animal that is bigger than them, which unfortunately for them is most animals. So depending on the size of your snake, even a chihuahua could be scary to it.

Why Is My Dog Is Obsessed With My Snake?

Dogs are very curious creatures and most dogs will never see a snake in their lifetime due to living in heavily populated areas where there will tend to be fewer snakes.

This means that when they do see one, they have no idea what it is, so they will almost cling to them to try and figure that out.

Why Is My Dog Whining At My Snake?

Whining in dogs is most often caused by excitement or fearfulness. If your dog is jumping, waging their tail or yipping, the whining is because they are excited.

If they seem very put off, shy or timid, then they are whining because they are afraid of the snake.

There is one more slightly less common reason why your dog may be whining known as “appeasement whining” this is when dogs whine in order to signal that they are not a threat.

How To Introduce A Snake To A Dog?

You can introduce a snake to a dog the same way you introduce a dog to a snake, just be very careful to keep a good hold on your snake.

Do Snakes Live Well Together With Dogs?

The most likely scenario when it comes to a snake living with a dog is they will take some time to get used to each other and then not really acknowledge each other from then on.

Snakes shouldn’t be out of their enclosure except for handling so they can’t really ‘hang out’ together anyways.

Can A Puppy Be Around Snakes?

Young puppies should not be around snakes.

Puppies are very small and quite fragile, which means that a fully grown snake (even a species that stays relatively small) could cause a lot of damage to the pup.

They also do not have very good control over themselves or their hunting instincts which means that they could end up killing the snake if the snake doesn’t harm them first.

How Do Dogs React To Snakes?

Most dogs will be very curious about the snake at first, which does tend to go away after they have been around them for a while.

If you have a dog that tends to be a little bit of a scaredy-cat, they will be very frightened by a snake as they have no idea what it is!

Are Snakes Scared Of Dogs Barking?

A snake most likely doesn’t know what a dog is, so may not recognise what the barking noise is.

However, they are scared of predators and might recognise that the bark is the sound of a predator, if that is the case they will be afraid.

Will The Snake Attack The Dog?

Most likely, yes. Snakes can’t be trained like a dog can so they will always rely on their instincts, which means if a dog seems threatening they will strike.

How To Get My Snake To Love My Dog?

Snakes are incapable of feeling love so this is unfortunately impossible, they can learn to not be afraid and tolerate others though.

[What Should I Do] My Dog Is Eating Snake Poop?

If your dog is eating snake poop out of the garbage then it may be time to upgrade your trash can on move the trash can you use to throw away the snake poop into another room.

Eating snake poop could be dangerous for a dog if it contains parasites or other nasty things that could affect your dog’s health.

[What Should I Do] My Snake Is Eating Dog Poop?

Your snake should be kept in an enclosure at all times except when taken out by a person for handling, they should not have access to dog poop.

Will The Snake Charge At My Dog?

Snakes are very skittish animals and won’t ‘charge’ at anything, they will only bite if they feel cornered or that they can’t get away.

The myth that snakes will chase people just comes from misunderstanding a situation, snakes will usually flee when threatened.

The problem is that humans also flee when threatened and sometimes they both end up fleeing in the same direction, so it looks like they are being chased.

Are Dogs Afraid Of Snakes?

‘This depends heavily on the dog in particular and how scared they tend to be, but in general, most dogs won’t be afraid of small snakes.

Do Snakes Make Good Pets?

Snakes can make excellent pets as long as you aren’t looking for a deep emotional connection with them.

The reason they make good pets is that they are very low maintenance compared to more commonly kept pets like dogs.

The hardest part of caring for a snake is properly setting up their enclosure to be safe and escape-proof.

Snakes only need to be fed once a week with an appropriately sized rodent which is nothing compared to the multiple times a day that a dog needs.

They also don’t need to be exercised at all, they just need to have a sufficiently sized enclosure.

How Much Room Does A Snake Need?

This obviously depends on how big a snake is but the general rule is that a snake should be able to stretch out at least ¾ of their length along one wall of their enclosure.

So for a ball python (one of the most commonly kept pet snakes) who get about 3-6 feet long a 20 gallon enclosure should be plenty of space.

Is It Expensive To Raise Snakes?

Snakes are peculiar in the sense that the upfront cost for their enclosure and heating and such is quite large but they are actually quite inexpensive to keep after that.

This is mainly due to them not needing to be bought new toys, leads or needing to be fed often like you would have to do with any mammal being kept as a pet.

Do Snakes Learn Their Names?

No, snakes aren’t able to comprehend language at all, they can be trained with sounds or objects though to know when they are being fed vs being held.

Can A Snake Kill A Dog?

If you had a big enough snake and a small enough dog then a snake could absolutely kill a dog.

So for example, if you had a toy poodle (who grow to be only about 10 inches at the shoulder) and a boa constrictor (who can grow up to 13 feet) the boa could easily kill the poodle.

Can Snakes Become Emotionally Bonded With Humans Like Dogs?

No, unfortunately, they can not. They can learn to not be afraid of and tolerate humans though.

Why Is My Dog Petrified Of The Snake’s Fangs?

If your dog seems to be suddenly overly scared of your snake’s mouth, they probably got a bite that you aren’t aware of which has caused this fear.

References:

https://animal-club.co.uk/do-pet-snakes-recognise-their-owners/
https://www.purina.com/dogs/dog-breeds/collections/best-dog-breeds-for-multi-pet-households
https://hiconsumption.com/best-hunting-dog-breeds/